Of Fans and Sand
by Ame no Megami
Summary: Their encouter was out of the ordinary as two young shinobis trained to be the best of their village stumbled across each other. It was the first time she had met him, and probably the last time she would. ItachiTemari


Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Pairings: (slightly) Itachi/Temari

**Of Fans and Sand**

Teal eyes blinked, darting everywhere at the sight before her, trying to absorb the surroundings. Jogging slightly to keep up with the quick pace of her superiors, and father, the young girl kept her eyes on the activities around her, amazed by the great difference between Hidden Villages.

Noticing that her father had glanced at her, the girl straightened up and tried to wipe the juvenile expression off her face as she scoffed to herself.

_What kinda great ninja village looks so much like a luxury vacation. _

Compared to her home in Sunagakure, Konohagakure was bustling with people in the market area, trees protecting them from the scorching heat, and even a _lake_.

When they passed what she noticed as an Academy for young ninjas, she smirked. She had graduated earlier than most shinobi her age—and had advanced considerably. Which puts her as the title of a 'genius' ninja in her village. It also helped win favor from her father—the Kazekage. That was why she currently is tagging along with the diplomatic trip.

She was motioned to wait outside the meeting room as the five adults entered.

Being idle wasn't a thing for her, and promptly, she took off to see more of this fascinatingly alive village.

On her toes, she peered over the window ledge in the hallway and watched the people run about on the ground. It was a rare sight in Sunagakure—the sun, the people, the trees, the animals. She couldn't help it but smile childishly for the first time. Before her were a small boy and perhaps his older brother walking. The younger one was sitting on his brother's shoulder as the older boy pointed out buildings and such.

Resting her chin on her palms, she enjoyed the weather and the scene below her. Never would she ever picture herself giving Kankurou or Gaara a piggy-back ride. Their family relation just wasn't like that.

_Well…maybe Gaara_

She mused. If he wasn't so downright scary and murderous, he could've actually been a cute younger brother.

As if sensing her gaze, the older boy turned his head up and stared right at her direction.

Ebony eyes met teal.

She prided herself a lot, yet she could feel the heat rising to her cheeks. He was extremely attractive for a boy. The pale skin contrasting with his dark hair gave him a dangerous, yet alluring atmosphere. She could almost feel herself being pulled into his gaze. Realizing he was a shinobi by the pouch of weapons in his back pocket, she closed her eyes to break eye contact.

It didn't matter that their countries were both on a truce—she still didn't trust those Leaf shinobis.

When she opened her eyes, the younger brother too, had noticed her presence.

"Hi!" He waved happily at her.

Her hideout was found, and immediately she gave her signature smirk at the dark-haired boy and his brother and left the windowsill.

* * *

Even though she had toured the whole building, the meeting was still in session and Temari ended up sitting quietly in the lobby area. It had turned nighttime, and everyone was clearing out of the office area—and downtown to go home for dinner. So she resided to priding herself with her newly acquired weaponry. Father had given it to her for completing her first solo mission. A beautiful metal-spine fan with three moons placed equally apart—she had been eyeing it for the longest time and she wielded it with agility that was unbeknownst for the petite body of hers. Finishing cleaning it up, she stuck it in the sash on her back and continued staring at the white walls of the lobby.

Upon hearing footsteps, she assumed her father was finally done Temari jumped out of her seat and readied herself to greet her superiors.

Funny, she realized, there was only one pair of feet walking down the hallway. Kazekage-sama had come with four bodyguards.

_So who the hell is this?_

Raising her right hand, she reflexively touched the top of her fan, frowning at the figure behind the door.

"Visitors shouldn't be attacking their hosts," A low voice spoke as the door opened.

Temari widened her eyes. He had seen her reach for her weapon even with the door closed?

In front of her, revealed the young boy she had seen before. This time, however, he was dressed in a more shinobi uniform—though she had noticed, it was differently from the ones she had seen walking around the office or downtown.

It consisted of a gray vest and black pants and shirt. Being like any other girl, she mentally nodded and approved of the attire on such a body. For such a young boy, she noticed how toned his muscles and adult-like his features were already. He stood only a few inches taller than her—which she deducted that he was only a few years older—probably two or three. Being extremely attractive was a plus on her scale too. She always liked dark-haired boys.

Realizing her mistake and not wanting to seem so amicable to one out of her own country, Temari sat back down, ignoring the boy standing at the doorway.

"Request from the Hokage and Kazekage themselves that you are to be escorted to your hotel."

He eyed the girl that sat there, ignoring his presence.

"I can make it there myself," She answered him haughtily as she stood up and smoothed out her skirt and turned away from him, "Thank you for the message."

He raised an eyebrow at her answer. She had just rejected an offer of protection.

Sure he had seen her this afternoon, smiling down at Konoha's amiable ambience—and realizing that she wore a Sand head protector, he knew the difference of Sunakugure's harsh conditions to Konoha's sunny afternoons.

Shaking his head, he followed after the abrasive girl. She was underestimating Konoha's unruly drunkards at night. Or maybe the fact that she was a girl and he felt he needed to accompany her.

If she got hurt, treaties between Sand and Leaf might be strained and it would be his fault. That was it. That was his job to tail her and keep her out of unnecessary trouble.

* * *

Temari inhaled deeply as she closed her eyes at the fresh air beside the lake. A little sidetrack wouldn't be that bad. Besides, who knew how much longer they'll be in that meeting room. Trailing off the gravel road, she sat down on the wooden area and took off her sandals.

Feeling giddy and free from scrutinizing eyes for once, she giggled and dipped her toes first, then her whole feet into the cool water, occasionally kicking to see the silver water droplets fall against the moonlight.

She could feel a presence approaching her—actually it had been following her since she had left the Hokage's building. Which then, she had deducted it could most likely be that dark-haired boy. But just because he was supposed to be her bodyguard—and mildly attractive—doesn't mean he can _stalk _her like this.

Waiting until she knew he was within attacking distance, she grabbed her fan…and swung it accordingly, releasing a great amount of wind that cut at the trees nearby.

A dark figure jumped out of the trees and landed a few feet to her right and she clutched onto her fan protectively.

Her assumption was correct. It had been the boy from earlier. His dark eyes held her gaze as she scoffed at his intrusion on her personal space.

"I told you, I can make it back by myself," She started to put her sandals back on. The mood was ruined. Temari might as well go back home and take a bath or something.

The boy stood frozen in place, "My orders were to escort you back safely."

She put her arms on her hips and glared back at him, "Well I'm not a _kid_, I can take care of myself."

He smirked at her response. The frowning girl in front of him looked about two years younger, yet she held herself higher than him.

"You're barely Chuunin level and yet you have that attitude. Are all Sand Shinobi that pompous?" He waited for her reaction.

Instead of another abrasive remark from her, she had fully lunged at him with her oversized fan.

The sound resonated through the night as metal clashed metal as he pulled out his katana to block.

With a weapon that size and weight, he was amazed at the speed she could wield it at as she went in for another attack—switching between range and up close attacks.

He smirked, he was wrong about her being barely Chuunin level—she was pretty much there already.

But still no match for him.

It wasn't even necessary for him to use his bloodline. With a quick step and attack, he was behind her, an arm wrapped around her arms to hold back her attacks and the other one holding the katana at her neck. Her fan dropped to the side at her feet.

At that moment, Temari stopped all movement as she stood still, not wanting the blade to hit her neck.

"There is no match between our skills," He stood only a few inches taller than her as her short hair brushed slightly against his face.

That was when he noticed that the person that he was fighting was a young _girl_. A young girl with blonde hair that smelled vaguely like…vanilla.

Forgetting for a moment that he was his clan's genius and top ANBU, Uchiha Itachi realized that he was just a thirteen year old boy devoid of girls his age.

With that, his arm lowered the katana at her neck slightly as he leaned in to sniff her hair.

It was soft…really nicely taken cared of too.

"PERVERT!"

Her voice snapped him out of the trance as she resorted to stomping on his foot and turning around promptly as he stepped back in surprise and swiftly…punched him in the face.

Itachi reeled backwards and clutched his nose. It had been a pointblank point with all her power and as he took his hand away, he could faintly feel blood trickling down.

And that was when he lost all demeanor of a top ranked ninja and resorted to an angry teenaged boy.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!"

Temari clutched her fan protectively in front of her, "Try that again and I'll take off your nose!"

"TRY WHAT!"

He was beyond furious. She had just _hit _him. And in the _face _no less. Heaven forbid that someone would scar his model face.

"Don't you feel me up and then act like you don't know anything!" She covered her nonexistent—or what Itachi described it as—chest with the fan.

"WHY WOULD I EVER WANT TO! YOU HAVE _NOTHING_!" Working with many older women—specifically Mitarashi Anko and Yuhei Kurenai then, the blonde's eleven-year old assets were nothing.

But before he could add another comment, and still too preoccupied with his bleeding nose—the girl was once again in front of him and placed another well suited punch to his stomach.

"YOU JERK!" She screamed back in his face this time.

"IS SMELLING YOUR HAIR SO WRONG!" He glared right back up at her.

"YE—uh huh?" She paused, "You were smelling…my hair…?"

At that moment, Itachi wish he had his ANBU mask. This girl was quite annoying…yet she was great with vocal anger management.

He had never screamed like that at someone before, though he'd seen many children around his age lose control to rage; he had always been a collective and dignified ninja.

Itachi looked away, refusing eye contact with the girl.

"Why did you smell my hair?" Her hands on her hips once again as she leaned forward and demanded from him.

His eye twitched as he glanced at the smug look on her face. She knew the answer and she wanted him to say it.

"Because…" He realized she might actually take off his nose this time, so he answered truthfully, "It smelled…nice…"

Her arm moved, and reflexively, he jumped backwards, leaving enough space between them so that she wouldn't be able to inflict more damage to his face.

But instead, she had held out a blue sash.

"You're bleeding. I don't have a napkin," She said bluntly. Her anger lessened and it seemed as if she had forgotten about the incident earlier.

He scowled bitterly, remembering his battle wound.

"I don't need it," He sniffed, "You're going home _now_. Or I'll leave you out here to rot when you get lost."

She scoffed as she sat back down, "Go ahead. Your nose is still bleeding."

He wiped it away with his sleeve to only earn a disgusted expression from the girl as another trickle of blood ran down.

"Hmph," She turned away and stared at the water again, twirling the sash around her finger.

"Fine," He stalked over to her and outstretched his arm.

Temari had only scooted over, implying for him to sit down. He dropped himself down, grudgingly and sulked about how a girl managed to break him of his high ranked dignity.

She turned over to stare at him and he glared back.

"What?"

Her face seemed to inch closer and closer to his, and he felt his breath shorten.

_What the hell is this?_

Before he knew it, she had reached out and pinched the bridge of his nose, earning her a punch in the shoulder from him as he screamed and reeled back.

"WHAT THE HELL!"

It had hurt. He could feel all the nerves just screaming at him right now. How he wanted to stab himself in the arm or leg or something to start the control-gate theory and move his pain somewhere else in the body.

She just leaned back and massaged her shoulder, "Well, it's not _broken_. So you should stop being such a girl about it."

Holding his breath, he inhaled and exhaled slowly to avoid screaming at the girl again.

_This is why. This is why I do not interact with the female species. Because there are insane bitches like her out there. _

Temari dipped the sash in water and stood up, walking over to where he had placed himself—a mild distance from her.

Wiping away the blood on his face, she grinned widely at him.

"If you had wanted to know secrets about taking care of your hair," She tsk-ed, "You could've just asked." With that, she flounced his long ponytail much to his discretion and skipped up to the gravel road.

Waving at him she smirked, "I want to go home now. Take me home."

Itachi grunted and stood up sulkily.

At that time, he swore to himself, to never date psycho girls like her.

"My name's Sabaku Temari," She said cheerily, "What's yours?"

"Itachi," He grunted.

"Itachi?" She paused, "That's _it_?"

He only grimaced and hoped that they were near her stay.

* * *

They stopped in front of the lavish hotel in the downtown shopping district of Konoha and she opened the gate. Before entering she turned around and smiled at him.

"Then I guess I'll see you another time when I'm a better ninja, Itachi-kun!" She skipped the formalities and she could feel him cringe at the end.

"Uchiha," He replied.

"Fan?" She asked questioningly and pointed at her back, "It's right here."

"My name's Uchiha Itachi."

Temari grinned, "Nice to meet you, Uchiha Itachi-_kun_."

"Then I'll be waiting until that day you and your fan come back to attack me," He smirked, "Goodnight, Sabaku Temari."

As the door closed and he returned back to headquarters for night patrol, Temari inside the bathroom washed the cloth that was stained with his blood.

It was the first time Temari had met Uchiha Itachi, and it had been the last time she thought she'll ever see him after hearing about the Uchiha massacre two years later.

**END: Of Fans and Sand**

:D I had to make an Itachi/Temari one. I know it was a bit out of character…but I figured they were young back then. I intended it to be a one-shot, but if there are enough reviewers who want to see this pairing go on, then I'll make a second part to it.

Comments and Criticism welcomed. Those last names I threw out…uh…were supposed to be Anko and Kurenai…but I couldn't remember their last names clearly (and was too lazy to look it up)…so I'm sorry if they're spelled wrong.

Anyways, Thanks for reading!

**Ame** **no Megami**


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